The accused then proceeded to the ordeal and carried the iron the measured distance--nine feet, divided into three equal parts, over which the person had to pass in as many steps regulated by signal. His hand was thereupon enclosed in an envelope under seal, and so remained until the expiration of three days, when the envelope was removed and an examination took place to see whether the hand was foul or clean within. If festering blood was found in the track of the iron, the accused was judged to be guilty; if otherwise, he stood acquitted. An infraction of the rules not only rendered the ordeal void, but was punishable by a fine of 120 shillings.
Instead of carrying iron of a given weight a stipulated distance, an accused person might traverse barefoot a certain space in which nine hot ploughshares were laid lengthwise. To this species of judgment Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, is alleged to have submitted, when charged with adultery with Alwyn, Bishop of Winchester. The precise nature of this trial is more than usually obscure, and there is some reason for doubting whether Blackstone's account is accurate. He states that the accused person was blindfolded and that the ploughshares were placed at irregular intervals--evidently with the design that the person might escape contact with some of the irons: possibly all. Blackstone's authority, Rudborn, in his story of the trial of Queen Emma, conveys a totally different impression of the proceedings--at any rate, on that occasion. He says distinctly that she was _not_ blindfolded, and that she pressed each ploughshare with the whole weight of her body: "Emma vero nullam mamphoram sive pannum ante oculos habens--super novem vomeres novem passus faciens et singulos eorum totius corporis pleno pressens pondere."
On such occasions the following collect was in use: "Lord God Omnipotent ... we invoke Thee, and, as suppliants, exhort Thy majesty, that in this judgment and test Thou wilt order to be of no avail all the wiles of diabolical fraud and ingenuity, the incantations either of men or of women; also the properties of herbs; so that to all those standing around, it may be apparent that Thou art just and lovest justice, and that there is none who may resist Thy majesty. And so, O Lord, Ruler of the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters, King of Thy whole creation, in Thy holy name and strength, we bless these ploughshares, that they may render a true judgment; so that, if it be so that that man is innocent of the charge in this matter which we are discussing and treating of amongst us, who walks over them with naked feet; Thou, O omnipotent God, as Thou didst deliver the three youths from the fiery furnace, and Susanna from the false charge, and Daniel from the den of lions--so that Thou mayest see fit, by Thy potent strength, to preserve the feet of the innocent safe and uninjured. If, moreover, that man be guilty in the aforesaid matter; and, the Devil persuading, shall have dared to tempt Thy power, and shall walk over them; do Thou, who art just and a Judge, make a manifest burn to appear on his feet, to Thy honour and praise and glory; to the constancy and confidence in Thy name, moreover, of us Thy servants; to the confusion and repentance of their sins of the perfidious and blind; so that, against their will, they may perceive, what willingly they would not--that Thou, living and reigning from ages to ages, art the judge of the living and the dead. Amen."